2015 Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft: Round 2

Just when you thought the Fantasy Baseball season was behind us – we publish the first two rounds of a 2015 Fantasy Baseball mock draft among 12 Fantasy writers from across the industry.

I already posted the first round of this draft over at FantasySports.About.com, and there have already been some fireworks from some of the later picks in that first round. We’re only doing two rounds right now, but we’ll start up another 2015 Fantasy Baseball mock draft in a few weeks.

I asked each of the writers drafting to share a couple sentences of analysis on why they picked their players also, so you get a little more than just a name. You get some reasoning.

We do these throughout the offseason, so stay tuned for more like them.

2015 Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft: Round 2

This mock draft is for a 12-team, mixed Rotisserie draft that counts batting average, runs, RBI, home runs and stolen bases for the hitting categories, along with saves, wins, strikeouts, ERA and WHIP in the pitching categories.

2.01 Felix Hernandez, SP, Seattle

“And this is coming from a guy that loathes early pitching picks. However, if not for some guy named Kershaw, King Felix would have been king of the pitchers. In fact, Hernandez posted his best season with a 2.14 ERA, wait, what’s that… I have to squint… oh, a 0.92 WHIP and 248 strikeouts in 236.0 IP. Chip in a modest 15 Wins, and we have a true, and rare, four-category pitcher. I might miss on an elite second hitter, but I do get the only pitcher who is allowed to have his name whispered in the vicinity of Kershaw.” – Jake Ciely of RotoExperts.com

2.02 Jose Bautista, OF, Toronto

“Another Jose (Altuve) and Michael Brantley crossed my mind, but I’m one for grabbing power early. And Altuve is really only a three-category player, for all his brilliance last year. I’m not ready to buy Brantley just yet. Even though he’ll be 34 next season, Joey Bats will keep raking … at least for one more year. I’ll find swipes later on.” – Tim Heaney of Fantasy.USAToday.com

2.03 Yasiel Puig, OF, L.A. Dodgers

“Not the safest move, but I’m still a believer in the Man, Bear, Puig. Even though he was a bit of a letdown this year, he’s only 23 and there’s a little-known study that has proven all Cuban-born players make their biggest fantasy jump between their second and third year in the big leagues.” – Nick Raducanu of ProjectRoto.com

Injuries hampered Nationals OF Bryce Harper in 2014, but he’ll be 22 years old soon, and ready for a breakout 2015 season.Photo Credit: Keith Allison

2.04 Bryce Harper, OF, Washington

“2014 taught us a lot of lessons, but the most important, to me, is to have patience with, and faith in, talent, as it will come through at some point (from Dee Gordon to Carlos Carrasco). Bryce Harper is arguably one of the most talented players in the game, and has seen two interrupted seasons thanks to injury. The big breakout was supposed to come in 2014 … maybe we were just a year ahead.” – Nando Di Fino of FNTSY Sports Network

2.05 Hunter Pence, OF, San Francisco

“I spent far too long considering far too many players — Pence, Michael Brantley, Justin Upton, Josh Donaldson, Robinson Cano, and David Price in particular — and I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no right pick at this spot in the draft. But in Pence I’m taking a guy who’s played at least 154 games with 20 or more homers in seven straight years and who’s totaled between 180-191 runs-plus-RBI in five straight years. I don’t like Pence’s age (32 in April) when there’s so much high-upside youth available, but I love his consistency and security in the second round.” – Bryan Curley of BaseballProf.com

2.06 Edwin Encarnacion, 1B, Toronto

“Despite spending nearly six weeks on the DL, E5 still managed 34 homers and 98 RBI. He’s the safest power option left on the board and complements my first pick (Carlos Gomez) nicely.” – Zach Steinhorn of MLB.com

2.07 Ian Desmond, SS, Washington

“There aren’t many 20-20 hitters in the game, but this guy has done it three years running. Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond is coming off a year where he hit 24 home runs, drove in 91 and stole 24 bases, albeit with a lower BA than expected. He is putting up the numbers that we all expected from Bryce Harper, while playing shortstop, which thins out a bit after the top 3-4.” – Ray Guilfoyle of FakeTeams.com

2.08 Justin Upton, OF, Atlanta

“Upton is bound to have a huge year one of these seasons. He’s smack dab in his prime, but hopefully he doesn’t go in the tank like his older brother at a similar stage in his career.” — Eric Mack of BleacherReport.com

2.09 Jacoby Ellsbury, OF, N.Y. Yankees

“I can’t help but wonder if the uptick in power might help ease the eventual erosion of his speed. The Yankees’ lineup won’t have a guy hitting .256/.304/.313 in the No. 2 spot all season in 2014, which should push Ellsbury’s run scored count up. Durability is always a concern, but there are few 15-35 guys on the board with the ability to carry an average near .300.” — Derek Van Riper of RotoWire.com

2.10 Matt Kemp, OF, L.A. Dodgers

“Over the past few years I’ve leaned much more heavily towards getting power in the early rounds, as opposed to the power-speed balance I took years ago when runs were more plentiful. So, I’ll take Matt Kemp, whose second half of the season was not out of line with his peak seasons. He doesn’t much anymore, but if the second half surge is for real and his shoulder is healthy again, I’ll take the 35+ homers and strong average, and look for steals later.” — Cory Schwartz of MLB.com

2.11 Robinson Cano, 2B, Seattle

“I took Cano, not as a scarcity pick, I don’t believe in scarcity, but rather as a reliability pick. I do believe in reliability. It didn’t take a PhD in common sense to project fewer homers for Cano. And I’m not going to be alone in saying I didn’t expect this much of a drop thus expect a few more next season. This should help compensate for some likely give-back with batting average. The drop in average should drop R+RBI a bit, unless the Mariners as a team score more runs, which I think they will. So to wrap this up before sundown, I pretty much expect Cano to do exactly what I expected him to do this time last season — and I had and now have him as a mid-2nd-round guy.” — Todd Zola of Mastersball.com and FantasyAlarm.com

2.12 Michael Brantley, OF, Cleveland

“It’s tough to write off Brantley’s season as a total fluke, as he finished just behind Mike Trout in Head-to-Head points. His 20/20 ability with a shot at 100 RBI is something I expect to happen again in 2015, but it might be tough to reach 200 hits again – and a .327 batting average. He’s turning just 28 years old in May, so it’s time to take him for real.. “– David Gonos of Sports Illustrated

David Gonos spent 5 years as a CBSSports.com Senior Fantasy Writer and three more years writing with SI.com. Over the past 17 years, his work has been published on NFL.com, MLB.com, FanDuel, FoxSports.com and USA Today. Since 2001, he has been tracking down the Top 50-plus Free Fantasy Football Draft Tools online. You can contact David Gonos here.